But It's Still Too Frail to Reach for the Sky
by ladybugbirdie42
Summary: After the disaster that is Elsa's coronation, she escapes into the mountains where she can be alone and free. Unfortunately, she's not as alone as she thinks. In the mountains, she meets a boy who is like her. He insists that he knows someone who can help her.
1. Chapter 1

Snow swirls around her following no matter how far she runs. Like it's mocking her.

Everyone knows now. It'd be impossible not to. Her powers have left their mark everywhere.

No matter how far she runs, though, she can't outrun herself, so she finally allows herself to slow, exhausted and far enough from the town that she can't endanger anyone.

"Um, excuse me?"

Unbidden ice shoots out in the direction of the voice before she can even turn to face the source. Horror fills her as she watches spikes of ice she hadn't even meant to form race toward a boy.

The ice deflects off an invisible wall, the air shimmering at the points of impact. The boy seems somewhat startled, but his reaction is nothing compared to the avalanche of negative emotions threatening to bury her.

She could've hurt him. _She almost hurt him._

"I'm so sorry," she blurts out, one arm out as if to hold the boy at bay. But that's not quite right is it

She has to go. She can't be near anyone. She'll hurt them.

"Wait, please. You shouldn't be out here by yourself this late at night. It's dangerous."

She doesn't know whether she wants to laugh or cry. He's worried about her being in danger when the most dangerous thing out here is her.

The boy takes a step towards her, and she reflexively takes a step back.

"Stay away from me! Please. I don't want to hurt you."

"I know," he says and then takes another step towards her.

The snow beneath her feet turns to ice, spreading outward in warning. "Why won't you just leave me alone?" she pleads, her voice edging towards desperation. Too many things have already gone wrong tonight. She can't have this boy's blood on her hands too.

"Because you're scared," he says, but he doesn't come any closer. "I just want to help you."

She curls in on herself, hands coming up to hug her upper arms. "You can't help me."

He doesn't answer immediately, taking his time thinking it over. "You're right," he concedes finally. "I can't help you. But I know someone who can."

The boy holds out his hand towards her, and it's ridiculous because he's nowhere near close enough for her to take it, but the ice has stopped spreading beneath her feet.

* * *

The boy—Shigeo, he introduced himself as—stops in front of a small cabin hidden deep in the woods and knocks.

There's grumbling from the other side of the door that steadily becomes clearer as whoever's inside approaches the door.

The door swings open with a fake-polite "yes, how may I help you" that gets cut off the moment the man spots Shigeo. "Mob! What are you doing here? I sent you home ages ago! Did something happen?" He turns Shigeo at various angles in an exaggerated show of looking him over. "You're not hurt, are you? I knew I shouldn't have sent you off alone in this weather."

Shigeo frowns at him, wriggling out of his grasp. "I'm fine, Master. I brought someone to see you."

The man's gaze snaps over to her, and she shrinks under his stare that seems to see right through her.

"Alright, well, come in, at least. It's freezing out here."

The inside is a little messy but cozy and definitely warmer than outside, with a fire burning in the fireplace. The living room and kitchen are all one room with a door presumably leading to the bedroom.

Being in such a small space with other people ends whatever bit of calm she's managed to obtain.

She inches closer to the door as she watches the man fuss over Shigeo, piling him with blankets.

"Have a seat," he says, waving vaguely in the general direction of the nearest chair barely even glancing her way.

The man is barely paying any attention to her but Shigeo is watching her expectantly, so she forces herself to take a seat

"Mob, give her one of your blankets," the man says. He's messing around with something in the kitchen now. She's not entirely sure what she's doing.

"I'm fine," she says when Shigeo moves to do as he was told. "The cold's never really bothered me," she adds in explanation before she can think better of it.

The man's giving her a weird look now, and she finds herself missing the way he'd mostly been ignoring her before, but Shigeo pipes up, "Oh, is it because of your ice powers?"

"Ice powers," the man repeats flatly. He looks out the window. "Right. Of course," he mutters to himself. Leave it to Mob to find his way right to the source of any unnatural occurrence and then drag said source right to his doorstep. Of course. Really, what was expecting?

She eyes him warily, hands clasped tightly together in her lap because she knows if she touches anything right now it'll freeze, but the man's focus has returned to whatever he's working on in the kitchen.

"Okay!" he says suddenly and comes out of the kitchen with two steaming cups. He hands one off to Shigeo before approaching her. "Here." When she hesitates too long, he kind of waggles the cup at her, very nearly spilling hot liquid all over the place. "Take it. It'll help you calm down."

She stares suspiciously at the liquid in the cup while the man takes a cup for himself and grabs a chair from the kitchen table to plop down in.

"What is this?" she asks.

He pauses, lowering the cup from his mouth from where he was about to take a sip. "This? It's a special herbal tea blend that one of my clients gave me. A sweet little old lady. It's good for anxiety." He likes to make it for some of his more troubled clients.

"It really does help," Shigeo encourages her.

She lifts her cup. It really does smell good. Reluctantly she takes a sip and then another, longer sip. "It's delicious."

The man smiles at her. "Glad to hear it. Right. Well, if you're finally feeling better, I guess I should actually introduce myself." He does a ridiculous flurry of hand motions before dramatically pointing at himself. "Arataka Reigen, at your service."

He's waiting for something, but she's not entirely sure what, so she just gives him a tight polite smile while she tries to focus on the warmth of the cup between her hands.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss…" He tries prompting her.

"Oh. Yes. It's very nice to meet you, too, Mr. Reigen."

The corners of his mouth twitch upward into an amused smile. "Thank you, but what's your name?"

She suddenly feels very stupid. A blush creeps up her face, and she doesn't have to look down to know that a thin layer of frost is creeping up her cup in the same manner. It occurs to her that she's never actually had to introduce herself before. Someone else always did the introducing (and everyone already knew who she was anyway). She sits up straighter, adopting a more regal posture in an attempt to cover up her embarrassment. "It's Elsa."

Reigen nods. "How can I help you, Miss Elsa?"

Elsa looks down at the ice crawling its way up her cup and takes a deep breath. "I have ice powers, and I need help learning how to control them."


	2. Chapter 2

Reigen listens as Elsa tells her story, nodding along encouraging her to continue when she gets stuck. It's obvious by the many pauses and vague way of explaining things that she's not telling the whole story. That's fine, though. After all it's none of Reigen's business. As long as he gets the information he needs to help her, the specifics don't really matter (and besides, it's not like he's incapable of reading between lines).

Elsa was reluctant at the start to just tell her entire life story to a man she just met, but as she talked, it got easier. It was freeing to be able to let it all out after years of hiding in more ways than one. Even if she leaves out a lot of details (like being royalty, for instance).

Once Elsa finishes her vague recounting of her life, Reigen sets his now-empty cup down with a little more enthusiasm than is strictly necessary. He strikes a dramatic pose and says with an unwarranted amount of confidence, "Worry no more, Miss Elsa. Lucky for you, I happen to be an expert on all things supernatural. We'll get your powers under control in no time! Trust me!" He gives her a thumbs-up.

She still isn't entirely sure whether she finds Reigen's antics amusing or annoying, but despite being a little off-put by his personality, his confidence is reassuring. It makes her feel a little hopeful even though she's not sure she believes his claims.

"We'll start first thing tomorrow morning. But for now, it's time for bed. Pretty sure it's way past Mob's bedtime."

* * *

"You're in way over your head." Elsa's been relegated to the bedroom so she can sleep in an actual bed and also have some privacy, and Reigen and Mob have just finished setting up camp in the living room when Dimple decides to make his presence known.

"Gah! How long have you been here?" Dimple has an annoying habit of just randomly appearing out of nowhere. Reigen is convinced that he does it on purpose to try to scare him, so he always tries to pretend not to be startled. It's a losing battle.

"The whole time."

"I ran into him on my way back here with Elsa," Mob explains helpfully, though Reigen really would have preferred to have that information hours ago.

"So he's stalking you now? Creepy."

"What! You're the one who told me to follow him! You told me to make sure he gets home safely. Remember?"

"Nope, don't recall."

Dimple's eye twitches and he mutters under his breath before turning to Mob. "Shigeo, why are you still hanging around this loser? You can do way better than this."

"Hey!"

"Dimple, don't be rude," Mob scolds lightly as he beckons Dimple over and away from Reigen. Dimple grumbles as he settles on top of Mob's head. "Why do you think Master can't help Miss Elsa?"

"Yeah, what's the big deal? It's just cryrokinesis."

"_Cryokinesis_. And, no, it's not. It's magic, you moron."

"Does that matter?" Mob asks curiously.

"Eh, psychic powers, magic powers. Same thing," Reigen says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Dimple rolls his eyes. "See? You're just proving my point. You have no idea what you're doing. The amount of power that girl has is insane, and she has no control over her powers. You can't help her. You don't even know what you're talking about."

Well, that's just not fair at all. Reigen never knows what he's talking about. And he knows Dimple knows that. Why is this any different?

"Well, I'm sure you don't care, Dimple, because you're a spirit, but I don't really want it to be winter forever, and the only way to fix that is to help Elsa figure out her powers. Besides, she came to me asking for help, and it's my job to do whatever I can to solve my clients' problems."

"Ugh, fine. Just don't come crying to me for help when she turns you into a human popsicle."

"I imagine it'd be pretty hard to ask anyone for help when you're frozen solid," Reigen smirks at him.

"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you?"


End file.
